


shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart

by lostinthesounds



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, I kinda forgot what happened in between 1x08 and the finale, Moment of Understanding, Some are not, butterfly garden from season one, don’t yell at me, ive been writing lots of fluff lately, soft bellarke, some things are canon, the beginning of falling in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:28:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24932263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostinthesounds/pseuds/lostinthesounds
Summary: “Don’t move.”  He warns.Clarke freezes instantly, “What is it? Do you see someone—“Bellamy shakes his head, and she expects him to reach into his back pocket for the pistol she knows he has to get rid of the threat, but he just grins. He grins wide like a child, and it confuses her.“There’s a butterfly on your head,” He tells her, pointing. “It’s resting on your braid.”Clarke finds a butterfly garden when she follows a trail in the middle of the night, and when Bellamy ends up finding her, she doesn't turn him away but lets him in.
Relationships: Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin
Comments: 5
Kudos: 99





	shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart

**Author's Note:**

> hi! thank you for reading, feel free to leave kudos or comments if you liked this <3 
> 
> I’m linking a CARRD here for anyone who wants to inform themselves on the black lives matter movement, my two most recent fics have links to the yemen crisis as well! https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

_shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart_

**_lostinthesounds_ **

* * *

Clarke couldn’t sleep, and she wanted to rip her hair out because of the inability to do so. She had been so worried over Jasper these past few days, her eyes heavy with unrest and hands sore and red. Her body craved it, but her mind wouldn’t shut off. 

Being that he was in stable condition tonight, she listened to Octavia’s nagging over going to sleep in her own tent as she watched over him. She didn’t want to think about how the younger Blake forgave her so quickly for merely being a bother for existing, but she figured it had something to do with the chaotic boy she was so attached to now. 

Her first procedure as a doctor, and it went well. Sure the inside of the medic tent smelled of moonshine for the entire afternoon, and blood was stained into the only pair of white sheets she could find in the dropship...but things were going alright. She was proud of herself, and only wished her body could think so too. 

Everytime Clarke closed her eyes, she would hear Jasper’s screams of agony from the previous morning when she realized she made more enemies than friends. When she would nuzzle into her makeshift pillow of her Ark prisoner jacket, she would wonder if Jasper was comfortable in his cot or if he was still in pain. 

It’s been four days since they’ve landed on the ground. 

Four days since the impossible became possible. 

Four days since her dreams became a nightmare in the blink of an eye, and suddenly Clarke jerks upright when the memory of the spear hitting Jasper in the chest flashes under closed eyes. She tried, she really did, but she wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. 

  
  


She blames the curiosity of watching something blue swirl back and forth on the outside of her tent which makes her get up and throw on her jacket to inspect it. 

  
  


Did she hear buzzing? She rubs her eyes and adjusts her jacket, pulling the zipper of her tent open. 

* * *

It was a butterfly, she soon found out. Charles Pike taught her well, and she’s almost proud of herself for remembering earth skills and animals when she hasn’t been to class in a year. It was glowing under the dark skies, hurrying to become a shadow in the green tall trees. She could relate to the feeling, wanting to escape from the harsh world when everyone was asleep. So people wouldn’t miss you. 

  
  


Clarke doubted anyone would miss her. Wells was gone now, having died the night they landed, and he was the only person that held her hand in chaos. 

She doesn’t think she could forget how much half of the camp wanted her dead for putting so much effort into saving Jasper’s life when he was keeping everyone awake with his screams. There was another thing bothering too. The one realization that made sleeping so much harder, and that was the fact that they weren’t alone. 

  
  


A small part of her that she didn’t want to acknowledge was the fear of being out in the woods wandering along following a butterfly, when murderers were on the loose and obviously claiming the outskirts of their camp. But she’s careful in staying close enough so people could hear her scream if something did happen. 

  
  


If she was brave, she would’ve stuck into the dropship to steal a knife or something. But she couldn’t. Not even if she wanted to. 

  
  


She wanted to save lives, not end them. 

  
  


She learned that lesson with a boy named Atom. 

  
  


She learned that there were loopholes to her morals and ideas, that sometimes ending someone’s life could save them. 

Shaking her head, she decided she didn’t want to think about it right now. 

Clarke follows the butterfly under the twinkling stars of Earth, and gasps in awe when the animal leads her to an entire clearing glowing in blue hues. The light feels warm against her skin, and there’s sparkling spots on the wings of each butterfly that makes her hold her breath in a fit of admiration. 

  
  


The butterfly that she followed flies away, and she’s too lost in the scene in front of her to bother knowing where it went. She’s surrounded by it’s family anyways. 

  
  


She doesn’t want to think about death. 

  
  


Or her dead best friend. 

Or how lonely she feels. 

  
  


She wants to explore. 

  
  


And this forest is beautiful. Beauty unlike everything she’s ever seen before. 

  
  


* * *

The butterfly habitat is enclosed in a circle of trees, and Clarke is tempted to running back to her tent to collect some scraps of paper and the broken bits of charcoal she still has left so she could collect some data—but the minute she’s able to lure a butterfly to rest on her finger, she knows she’s not going anywhere. She rests on her knees, and she leans forward on a tree stump to just admire how they interact with each other. 

  
  


She bites her lip, unsure if her voice would scare them away. There must’ve been a hundred butterflies surrounding her small frame, hanging on trees and fluttering as they flew past her, and she didn’t want to move or disturb them. 

  
  


Clouded by too much emotion, Clarke doesn’t pick up on the sound of leaves crunching under a pair of boots and curses being whispered into the night air as they try to keep quiet. 

  
  


* * *

Clarke turns around slowly, feeling a pit settle in her stomach with knowing she wasn’t alone anymore. 

She’s surprised to see Bellamy Blake, the stubborn boy she had found herself arguing with more than not ever since they landed. 

“I’m sure you know that you shouldn’t be out here on your own, right?” 

He suggests, as if she hadn’t thought about it. She wasn’t stupid. 

“Here to reprimand me, Blake?” She asks him, tilting her head as her eyes follow the trail of a butterfly buzzing past her. Paying no mind to how he seems to be walking closer, “You should be guarding the front gate right now.” 

“My shift just ended, and you’d be surprised how boring it actually is sitting for four hours,” Bellamy jokes, and she tries not to smile. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction, not now. “I like walking around camp before I go to sleep, to make sure nothing happens.” 

  
  


“We can’t be prepared for everything.” Clarke says softly, clasped hands falling to her lap surprised by her own serious tone. 

  
  


“I like to try to be.” Bellamy’s voice is gentle, and he looks around the clearing to lose himself in the beauty of the glow around them. She looks at him for a second, taking notice of how the light rests against his face. He’s glowing just like she is. The brightness of the blue and green colors make him look darker somehow, and although it’s well past midnight, she could see the faint dots of freckles on his cheeks. She could see the reflection of the scenery in his brown eyes, and she shakes her head with a blush rising up her neck. 

He was attractive, she knew this. 

But something else caught her attention. 

  
  


The bags under his eyes matched hers, and when they locked eyes, she forgets how tired she was. She just sees someone who’s just as overworked as she is. 

  
  


“How was your shift?” She asks, clearing her throat. 

  
  


“Fine.” He says, his grin widening as a butterfly flies past his face as he tries to get one to land on the shoulder pad of his guard uniform. He outstretched his hand, bending his finger to try and lure one in. Only turning serious when he finds her tilted gaze, he straightens up. “I wasn’t being an ass earlier, you know? We both know it’s not safe out here.” 

  
  


“I’m not scared, Bellamy.” She shrugs his concern off. Then gestures to the glowing trees, “We haven’t even explored this place yet and we’ve been down here for days. It’s beautiful.” 

  
  


Bellamy wants to say something, she knows he does. But, she senses his hesitation when he bites his tongue, and he points to the top of her head with wide eyes. 

_ “ _ Don’t move.” He warns. 

Clarke freezes instantly, “What is it? Do you see someone—“ 

Bellamy shakes his head, and she expects him to reach into his back pocket for the pistol she knows he has to get rid of the threat, but he just grins. He _grins_ wide like a child, and it confuses her. 

“There’s a butterfly on your head,” He tells her, pointing. “It’s resting on your braid.” 

Clarke exhales, mouth curling upwards into a small smile of her own. 

“You are an ass for that,” She said, relaxing the tension of her shoulders and hands when she rests on her heels. He chuckles at that, and she can’t stop smiling even when she wasn’t sure if it was a bad thing or not. He only moves forward when it flies away and she turns her back from him. 

  
  


He grunts when he kneels down on one knee, taking the spot next to her. 

  
  


His face is glowing and his body is close, and he looks like something out of the movies she never understood. 

  
  


“Not trying to be mean here, Clarke.” He looks at her, turning his head and she hopes that in the silence of the forest, he can't hear how loud her heart starts to beat in her chest. “Just trying to be somewhat of a friend to someone I _haven’t_ been the nicest to.” 

She lowers her head at those words, suddenly feeling shy as their shared moments run through her mind. 

_She could’ve been nicer to him too_. 

They could’ve tried to understand each other a lot sooner. They could be a team, she thinks. She thinks they would make a good one if he was up for it. 

“Is this a good time to say that I’m sorry?” She said lowly, hoping she wouldn’t have to repeat it. 

Bellamy lures a butterfly that was resting on the tree stump on his finger when he stay still for long enough, and he nods his head in acknowledgment. 

“I’m sorry too. For everything.” A weight lifts from her chest and she knows it’s the start of something great. They would work together from now on, and she wouldn’t lie to herself when understanding that he was the best guard in camp and she needed him to survive. He pulls back his hand just a little, and looks at her twiddling with her fingers nervously. 

  
  


“Why don’t you grab his friend there?” He suggests and uses his other hand to point at the second butterfly she was in a daze of watching before he arrived. “I’m sure he’s jealous.” 

  
  


Clarke adjusts her sitting position, inching a little closer to Bellamy to reach forward to settle her hand in front of the butterfly's path. 

She huffs, “Jealous? They’re butterflies.” 

  
  


“That’s what they’re called?” He asked, but she knows how smart he truly is so he’s just doing this to spite her. “I should’ve listened to Pike more in class.” 

She rolls her eyes in fake annoyance, “You were the smartest kids in Earth 101 for a while until I showed up.” She thinks about it for a second, wondering if she should point out the obvious that came up after that. “Then things changed for the both of us.” 

(She was arrested on the Ark for treason, and she figured Bellamy didn't have it easy now that she knew about his sister) 

  
  


“I’d say that changed for the better.” She gives him a raised brow in response, but he continues with confidence. “Clarke we made it to the ground, we’re all breathing fresh air. We’re saving lives and protecting each other, and I don’t know about you, but I haven’t felt apart of something important in over a year.” He gives the nod to her, wanting it to resonate with her experiences. Then, his shoulders sulk in a moment of vulnerability. “I haven’t felt like this in a long time.” 

“It’s going to get harder, I know it is.” Clarke whispered to him, the butterfly crawling on her skin. She doesn’t mind it, because it distracts her from Bellamy’s intense gaze. 

“And we’ll figure that out too.” 

Under the stars and darkness of the night, he could see the way her skin glows under the blue light of the butterflies. She has no control over it, over how she makes him feel, but as she smiles and fails at hiding how happy everything is making her right now, he doesn’t know if he could live without her. 

He would do anything to protect her. 

  
  


They had a rocky start, but he figures that all friendships start this way when you don’t know how the other person lived their life. 

The ground was a fresh start. 

He’s taking advantage of it. 

Her blue eyes are enticing as he longs to be looked at by her, and the green hues surrounding them make them seem lighter, like he could almost look through her fear. Look through the glass of the person she truly is and wants to become. 

“Do you think we could do this, Bellamy?” She blurts out, as if she had been thinking about it for hours before having the courage of asking him. “Can we keep everyone alive?” 

“I think you know the answer,” He says after thinking about it, and something in his soul breaks at the realization of his own. He knows he can’t save everyone. He knows people will die. He knows there’s people out there with spears and the intent to kill him. “But we could try our best to make sure we limit our losses.” 

“It’s just the beginning for us.” She looks around the enclosure with curious eyes and a new attitude, with a newfound strength and determination to do the right thing. The glow makes her the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen. “And we don’t know what’s out there.” 

  
  


“Or who wants to get us.” 

  
  


“We have to protect them, Bellamy.” She says, and it’s more of a plead than anything else. She wants to do this with him, and although it scares him, she knows it’s what needs to be done. “From your weapon skills to my medic training, we’re the only two people capable of doing this.” 

  
  


“We need each other, and I know that now.” He assured strongly, leaving no room for doubt. 

  
  


“Me too.” She says softly, looking at him like he had transformed into a different person in front of her eyes. Into someone she actually likes and wants to be around. 

  
  


“Should we start heading back?” He asks her a few minutes later when the butterflies fly off their hands and into the trees, when both of their eyes start becoming heavy with the need for sleep. “It’s late.” 

  
  


“Yeah we probably should.” Clarke laughs, and rests against the tree stump to steady herself when she rises on her feet. When she stands, she reaches for Bellamy’s hand to help him get up too. 

They walk back to camp together, and when Bellamy’s hand squeezes hers tightly as a goodbye outside of her tent, she doesn’t exactly feel like she made a mistake in not pushing him away. She liked his company and their light conversations helped clear her mind in order for her to sleep a few hours. 

She would make a note in the morning to ask him if he wanted to join her in collecting data on the plants and butterfly forest tomorrow afternoon, knowing there was a good chance he would say yes . 


End file.
